Datacenter networks present unique challenges for debugging and troubleshooting with their scale and traffic volume. Datacenter operators often deploy monitoring solutions which are either packet-based like SPAN or flow-based such as netflow which give more visibility into the traffic. Applications may also require service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing latency/quality-of-service for performance and network operators need efficient mechanisms to proactively debug if these requirements are violated and quickly isolate problems.
Netflow and IPFIX formats export the first and last timestamp for a flow in an export interval. This data can typically help in calculating the duration of the flow but cannot pinpoint if certain frames within the flow experienced latency spikes at certain hops.